COUNTING OF YEARS AND MONTHS. 103
numbers and ordinal numbers, for which reason the cardinal numbers are often used in an ordinal sense. Thus :-
Meiji ni-jil-san-nen (lit. " Meiji 23 year)," u the twenty- third year of (the chronological period termed) Meiji," i.e. " A.D. 1890," according to the European reckoning. Similarly ni-gwatsu or ni-getsu (lit. " two month)," i.e. " February ;" jil-iclii-iiiclii (lit. " eleven day)," i.e. "the eleventh day of the month."
N. B. The context generally shows whether the number should be taken as a cardinal or as an ordinal. Sometimes the cardinal numbers are distinguished by the insertion of an auxiliary numeral. Thus "two months" would be ni-ka-getsu, or, in native Japanese parlance and without any auxiliary numeral, fiita-tsuki.
1T 1 68. Years are usually counted by what are termed year-names (Jap. iiengo), i.e. periods of irregular length with names arbitrarily chosen. The present period " Meiji " began with the overthrow of the Shogunate and the restoration of the Mikado to absolute power in 1867. Occasionally of late, years have been counted from the supposititious era of the mythical Emperor Jimmu, who, according to the native history books, was the first human monarch of Japan, and ascended the throne on the nth February, B. C. 660.
IT 169. January is called sho-gwatsu, lit. "the chief month;" sometimes also ichi-getsu, lit. " one month " (gwatsu being the Go-on, and getsu the Kan-on pronunciation of the same Chinese character H, "moon;" see p. 7.). The other months are formed by prefixing the Chinese numerals to the word givatsu. Thus the months run as follows :
